In 2008 the āCamden Catacombsā, the 1846 vaults under the former Construction Shop, were refurbished and replaced by 25 linear vaults that now serve as retail shops in Stables Market. This represented a major loss of heritage significance, replacing the edgy charm of what existed before with a solution that lacks character and imagination. The commercial imperative behind the redevelopment was clear, but it has obliterated all appreciation of what the vaults previously looked and felt like.
Stables Market is an integral part of the former Goods Yard, and we should seek ways of linking the two parts and using this to enhance the publicās understanding of what was there before. While the current arrangement of the 25 vaults fails entirely to do this, with the redevelopment of the Morrisons site there is an opportunity to correct this, at least partially.
We would like to promote a future route from Stables Market via one of the main vaults (see photo) under the North London Line (NLL), rising in a gentle slope up to Railway Park a public open space in the Morrisons redevelopment, the difference in level being about five metres. We would further encourage the opening up of adjacent vaults and the revealing of the transverse vaults, so that the public getsĀ a glimpse of what used to be called the āCamden Catacombsā. How many of the vaults can be opened up this way depends on finding tenants willing to occupy such a unique site, with higher footfall coming from its two-directional orientation. It should be possible to satisfy security concerns.
While the level of the pavement of the passage through the vaults is a design decision, CRHT would like to see the inverted arch structure of the side vaults exposed (see photo). There would have to be security bars in these openings.
The passage leading up into Railway Park from Stables Market would direct visitors to the Interchange stairs and from there into Camden Lock Place (described as a āproposed routeā in the text of Morrisonsā application submission for Camden Goods Yard), helping create the permeability that is lacking because of the barrier that is the North London Line. Another signpost in Railway Park would direct visitors to the Winding Vaults. In the past, the coal yard that occupied the site above Morrisonsā temporary supermarket was linked via a horse road with Stables Yard. Stables Yard also featured coal drop sidings. There is currently no passage linking the two parts of the goods yard apart from the Eastern Horse Tunnel, with its access constraints.